Signal loss and/or signal degradation is a problem in known electrical systems. For example, cross talk results from an electromagnetic coupling of the fields surrounding an active conductor or differential pair of conductors and an adjacent conductor or differential pair of conductors. The strength of the coupling generally depends on the separation between the conductors, thus, cross talk may be significant when the electrical connectors are placed in close proximity to each other. The strength of the coupling also depends on the material separating the conductors.
As speed and performance demands increase, known electrical connectors are proving to be insufficient. Additionally, there is a desire to increase the density of electrical connectors to increase throughput of the electrical system without an appreciable increase in size of the electrical connectors. Such increase in density without increase in size causes further strains on performance.
This is particularly true in the automotive industry in which digitization and connectivity are becoming more important. Automotive Ethernet provides the ability to provide new functions based on networking individual functions/systems, on re-using sensor signals and on communicating with a backend view the cloud. This requires high-bandwidth, high-frequency data transmission to facilitate such connectivity.
To enable this high-bandwidth, high-frequency data transmission, it would be beneficial to have electrical connectors which are properly shielded, robust, reliable, miniaturized and scalable.